Improvement in wire fences



UNITED S'IATES PATEnrr OFFICE.

LUTHER MERRILL AND JOHN O. MERRILL, OF TURKEY RIVER STATION,

' IOWA.

IMPROVEMENT IN WIRE FENCES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.

164,576, dated June 15, 1875; application led March 19, 1875.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that we, L. MERRILL and JOHN O. MERRILL, of Turkey River Station, in the county of Clayton and State ot' Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fences and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyin g drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon,which form part of this specifica-tion.

Our invention is intended for an improve- Inent on the swinging wire fence for which Letters Patent No. 155,538 were granted to us September 29,1874; and it consists in the devices for keeping the sections of the fence straight, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which our invention appertains to make and use the same, we will now proceed to describe its construction and operation, referring to the annexed drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of our invention.

A A represent sections of our wire fence, each section composed of two or more strands, with a series of brads, a, and connected by vertical wires b, as shown. B B represent the posts from which the sections A A are suspended.

The sections may be of any desired length, say one hundred feet, more or less, and are connectedin the following manner: From each post B projects a hook, d, upon which are hung two links, c e, which are fastened to the ends of the upper strands ot the two adjoining wire sections. F rom these strands extend two other links, Ac e', the lower ends of which are connected by a ring, f. The next strands of the two sections are in like manner provided with links e e and e e', the former ones being attached to the link or ring f above mentioned, and the lower ones connected by another ring, f. In like manner all the strands of the two sections are connected by links and rings, and in the bottom ring is suspended a weight, O, which keeps the wires straight.

As the wires contract and expand by the changes in the temperature, the weight O compensates for the same by the eXible connection or coupling, as described, so that the fence will at all times be held perfectly straight.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination, with a' sectional suspended wire fence, of flexible couplings between the sections, consisting of links and rings, substantially as described, and one or more weights suspended from each coupling, for the purposes herein set fort-l1.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing as our own we afix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

LUTHER MERRILL. JOHN O. MERRILL. Witnesses:

J. B. WENTwoR'rH,

FREDERlCK GUDGER. 

